One of the Christmas greetings I received this year contained a poem attributed to Wilfred A. Peterson from his book, The Art of Living. It goes like this:
"Christmas
is not in tinsel and lights and outer show.
The secret lies in an inner glow.
It's lighting a fire inside the heart.
Good will and joy a vital part.
It's higher thought and a greater plan.
It's glorious dream in the soul of man."
These sentiments could refer to those who have celebrated or are celebrating Hanukkah, Christmas, or Kwanzaa. Indeed, they're appropriate all year around.
Blessings to all!
Monday, December 28, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Prayer of Compassion
One of our local Episcopal churches held a "Blue Christmas" service yesterday. It was intended to bring "healing and hope" to those who were meeting a variety of difficulties at this point in their lives.
The idea prompted a short prayer:
Com-passion -- "with passion" --
May our prayers tonight for those who seem to suffer
Be aflame with Thy Glorious Light.
May those who cry out with grief, with pain, with sadness
Hear the Music of Thy Being
And find themselves at peace in the Arms of Love.
The idea prompted a short prayer:
Com-passion -- "with passion" --
May our prayers tonight for those who seem to suffer
Be aflame with Thy Glorious Light.
May those who cry out with grief, with pain, with sadness
Hear the Music of Thy Being
And find themselves at peace in the Arms of Love.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
"It's a Wonderful Life"
The 1946 movie It's a Wonderful Life was broadcast again on TV last night. In it, James Stewart plays George Bailey, a distraught businessman who has decided to commit suicide because his life seems worthless. An angel is sent to rescue him.
This movie is shown on TV at least once every year about this time. And it's great that it is -- its message can't be heard too often: It's the seemingly "little" things that make one's life a success, the little things we hardly notice, the ramifications of which may be huge.
In the last post I talked about interconnections. If a single life form is destroyed, this can in turn destroy an entire ecosystem. Conversely, a species saved from extinction can protect that ecosystem. And similarly, simple acts of kindness, compassion, love can have enormous effects on entire communities and beyond.
George Bailey didn't commit suicide. His guardian angel showed him what a different world -- a very loveless one -- would have appeared if George had not been there.
Many people, like George Bailey in the movie, want to do "big things" in their lifetimes. And again, as for George Bailey, it may appear as though things don't work out that way. How about a change of perspective here? Can we really know what "big" means? The ineffable Infinite: now that's big!
Jesus said, "I of myself can do nothing; 'tis the Father that doeth the work." Trust in the Infinite to do the grand things. Walk with awareness to do what you are called to do, not because you're striving to "do good," but because you're allowing the Father's Goodness to be expressed as your "little" acts of kindness and love.
This movie is shown on TV at least once every year about this time. And it's great that it is -- its message can't be heard too often: It's the seemingly "little" things that make one's life a success, the little things we hardly notice, the ramifications of which may be huge.
In the last post I talked about interconnections. If a single life form is destroyed, this can in turn destroy an entire ecosystem. Conversely, a species saved from extinction can protect that ecosystem. And similarly, simple acts of kindness, compassion, love can have enormous effects on entire communities and beyond.
George Bailey didn't commit suicide. His guardian angel showed him what a different world -- a very loveless one -- would have appeared if George had not been there.
Many people, like George Bailey in the movie, want to do "big things" in their lifetimes. And again, as for George Bailey, it may appear as though things don't work out that way. How about a change of perspective here? Can we really know what "big" means? The ineffable Infinite: now that's big!
Jesus said, "I of myself can do nothing; 'tis the Father that doeth the work." Trust in the Infinite to do the grand things. Walk with awareness to do what you are called to do, not because you're striving to "do good," but because you're allowing the Father's Goodness to be expressed as your "little" acts of kindness and love.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
God Bless the Copenhagen Conference
This coming week, delegates from some 200 nations will enter into talks in Copenhagen. There, they hope to replace the U.N. Kyoto Protocol with new agreements that will more effectively offset the climate change that is already affecting our world.
Despite considerable agreement within the scientific community that global climate change is well underway, there's still a great deal of dissension regarding what the nations of the world can or should do about these changes.
In all the arguments -- between conservatives and liberals, developed and developing nations, advocates of radically reducing CO2 emissions and those who feel climate change is a myth or would be happening regardless of humanity's actions -- it seems to me that one issue is frequently sidestepped: that of the interconnectedness of every aspect of the ecosphere and the respect and good stewardship required of humanity.
Undeniably, the world in which we appear to live is miraculous, whether one believes in a deity or not. And every detail, down to the vibrating (singing!) atoms, is intricately interwoven with every other, into a magnificent tapestry. Within this extraordinary interconnection, nothing can be touched without affecting every other aspect. A species becomes extinct: a wondrous detail is lost, and ripples run throughout all that that species lived with, and far beyond. As John Donne wrote in his Meditation XVII, "No man is an island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent . . . ."
The ecosphere is a grand, glittering wonder for those able to perceive it as such. How asleep so many men and women seem to be, to not cognize the beauty, the delicacy, the power, and the patterns that surround them.
At a deeper level, are that which we perceive as the "outer" world and mankind's "inner" world of mentality and emotion so very separate? What pollution of people's thoughts, what smog of their egos and inner dramas, are reflected in the poisoned world of chemical waste and coal-fired smoke-stacks?
The issues to be met at Copenhagen, and by each of us at home, seem complicated and far-reaching. To begin to resolve the climate crisis will mean to allow a radical restructuring of the way in which mankind inhabits, and takes care of, this planet. Ultimately, it will call for new societies, new economies, new approaches and perceptions. And especially, it will call for a fundamental change within men and women, a cleaning up of the mental detritus that has kept us locked in what appears to be a limited and fractured world.
But as the birds soar, so can we soar to places of the heart and soul, to vast vistas of compassion and love.
Pray for those at Copenhagen: that they may listen and hear, propose and create, with clarity, insight, wisdom, and -- yes -- with recognition and wonder at the divine tapestry that includes us all.
Despite considerable agreement within the scientific community that global climate change is well underway, there's still a great deal of dissension regarding what the nations of the world can or should do about these changes.
In all the arguments -- between conservatives and liberals, developed and developing nations, advocates of radically reducing CO2 emissions and those who feel climate change is a myth or would be happening regardless of humanity's actions -- it seems to me that one issue is frequently sidestepped: that of the interconnectedness of every aspect of the ecosphere and the respect and good stewardship required of humanity.
Undeniably, the world in which we appear to live is miraculous, whether one believes in a deity or not. And every detail, down to the vibrating (singing!) atoms, is intricately interwoven with every other, into a magnificent tapestry. Within this extraordinary interconnection, nothing can be touched without affecting every other aspect. A species becomes extinct: a wondrous detail is lost, and ripples run throughout all that that species lived with, and far beyond. As John Donne wrote in his Meditation XVII, "No man is an island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent . . . ."
The ecosphere is a grand, glittering wonder for those able to perceive it as such. How asleep so many men and women seem to be, to not cognize the beauty, the delicacy, the power, and the patterns that surround them.
At a deeper level, are that which we perceive as the "outer" world and mankind's "inner" world of mentality and emotion so very separate? What pollution of people's thoughts, what smog of their egos and inner dramas, are reflected in the poisoned world of chemical waste and coal-fired smoke-stacks?
The issues to be met at Copenhagen, and by each of us at home, seem complicated and far-reaching. To begin to resolve the climate crisis will mean to allow a radical restructuring of the way in which mankind inhabits, and takes care of, this planet. Ultimately, it will call for new societies, new economies, new approaches and perceptions. And especially, it will call for a fundamental change within men and women, a cleaning up of the mental detritus that has kept us locked in what appears to be a limited and fractured world.
But as the birds soar, so can we soar to places of the heart and soul, to vast vistas of compassion and love.
Pray for those at Copenhagen: that they may listen and hear, propose and create, with clarity, insight, wisdom, and -- yes -- with recognition and wonder at the divine tapestry that includes us all.
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